The Talk
by Salmon
Summary: When Mother's gave their daughters "The Talk" they were remarkably vague and unhelpful. As years pass, Rebecca comes of age and comes to understand things that "The Talk" really didn't cover.


**The Talk**

_Warnings for: Adult situations, Masturbation, hints of Yuri, Yaoi, and Poly Relationships._

* * *

When Mother's gave their daughters "The Talk" they were remarkably vague and unhelpful. Sure, they gave the details as well as any sexual education text book. What the parts were. Where they went. How a girl got pregnant. Depending on the mother the explanation ended with:

a) Why she shouldn't have sex until marriage

or

b) How to prevent pregancy while being sexually active

If a mother was particularly wild, or a girl had a wild aunt or older sister, then she got magazines of naked guys. Anything else was left for the girl to discover on her own. All the most important parts were left out.

Rebecca didn't have a mother, so when she started her menstrual cycle her grandfather had a family friend give her "The Talk". She didn't even get the a or b option or the magazines. She got the dry explanation from the sex text book of what was happening to her body, why, how men's bodies differed, and how sex between a man and a woman worked.

A fellow female duelist gave her a romance novel when she'd expressed her curiosity over the one she was reading. Rebecca's interest in them lasted two weeks. The writing tended to be sub par and by the end of two weeks she'd found that all the sex scenes read the same after awhile. Still, the books mentioned things that hadn't been mentioned in "The Talk". Physical reactions that nobody said anything about. But since the main character only felt these things when the leading man was doing things to her, Rebecca figured she could worry about how those would really feel the night she got sexually active - and that seemed too far in the future to worry about.

When she met the other a few months later, she was surprised she was still reading romance novels. The girl asked if she'd purchased the latest one she was reading. She admitted she hadn't, but politely turned down the offer to borrow her copy. It was a routine that continued every time they met. She never seemed to recall which one she'd asked Rebecca about last time, she only asked if she'd read the latest one. It was clear to Rebecca then that the plots were all the same to her as well, as the books didn't last in her mind long enough to even ask about one in particular. It confused her, and she wondered then if there was something she was missing, but she pushed it aside - there were more pressing matters than one fellow girl's strange obsession with subpar writing that mostly involved repetitive sex scenes.

* * *

Girls learned by example. Older girls giggled when boys talked to them, or when they talked about boys. They called attractive boys things like "hot" and "dreamy". They fanned themselves when discussing whoever the said "hot" guy was, be it the school heart-throb or a movie star. They whispered about kisses, and what they'd like to do on a date. Even what they'd wear if they got married. If a girl was kissed by a guy she liked, and was asked what it felt like, the answers were things like "wonderful", "amazing", and "like a dream". They didn't talk about physical reactions like in the romance novels, so Rebecca didn't dwell on them. She learned well how to imitate the behavior, however.

She didn't think about boys that much, really. Not as much as other girls, it seemed. She preferred to talk about dueling and computers, but she learned quickly that "girl time" meant talking about clothes, hair, make-up and - of course - boys. She indulged when she was curious, or when she couldn't avoid it. She wasn't positive what her "type" was, really. Someone into the same things as her, she supposed. Yugi was an obvious choice. He was smart, nice, and into duel monsters. She found him good looking - she liked his hair, and his big eyes. She didn't see the appeal in small eyes. They looked squinty to her. So, he was attractive so that meant "hot", right? She fanned herself and she giggled. She hugged him, and she said it was "dreamy" when asked how it felt. She wasn't sure what "dreamy" meant, really. Still, hugging Yugi made her happy, so maybe that was what it meant?

It wasn't until she heard an off hand comment from a "crasser" older girl that she began to wonder if she was missing something. It wasn't that crass of a comment, even, looking back. It just crossed that line that the "nice girls" didn't touch.

"When he kissed me, my thighs were on fire!"

Well, she'd certainly never felt like her thighs were on fire. She went on-line and read more about it all. Apparently looking, and even casual touching was supposed to cause physical reactions in both men and women. She looked at pictures of naked men, but her thighs didn't seem to be doing anything. What was she missing? She tried watching porn, and that seemed to get her somewhere. She began to feel warm as the woman's breasts were played with; her neck kissed. The moans, especially, started to create feelings she'd never felt before. She felt warmth spreading between her legs, and it was strange and exciting. But then the porn seemed to focus on the man's dick and him plunging it into the woman and Rebecca felt... put off. The woman was making those sounds still but the man seemed to have stopped all the touching, and the video seemed stuck on the man's dick. All the warmth seemed to be going away, and it made no sense at all. Wasn't that the whole point? Shouldn't she be more excited?

Not ready to give up, she tried the romance novels again. She imagined this time those sounds, hands touching those areas so intimately. It was arousing, but the moment the book got to the "main event" when the man inserted himself into the woman, she seemed to lose interest. Her body cooled down. It was confusing and frustrating. The feelings felt so good, and she wanted to feel more, not less. What was she doing wrong? Maybe that was as far as it got unless you actually had sex? Certainly the romance novels seemed to make it so. And the other girls never talked about those funny feelings or the wetness occasionally left on her panties after she experimented.

Every girl she approached simply took it as if nobody had ever had "The Talk" with her. Six "The Talks" later, it was clear that every girl was only going to give her the same sexual education book descriptions as if that really answered the question about her body's reactions. Apparently that was all they, too, had been given to go on. It was as if it was all hush hush. Girls weren't supposed to feel or talk about those things. Or maybe it was just that "nice girls" weren't. It was frustrating. She decided then that she needed to talk about it with a girl that wasn't "nice".

* * *

Rebecca was a duelist, so Mai Valentine was the obvious choice. She was worldly, flirtatious, and not at all bashful when it came to anything - be it dueling or men. Mai didn't say kisses were "dreamy". She said they were fun. She said she knew it was a good sign if a guy could get her panties wet with just a kiss. It was the first mention of wet panties she'd heard any girl make.

Mai didn't say a guy was "hot" or rather, she didn't just say a guy was "hot", she talked about men's bodies. She mentioned if a guy they passed on the street had nice arms or strong muscles. She was perfectly willing to share which male duelists she felt had the best asses. Joey was on top of the list, apparently, but Rebecca didn't feel any particular urge to look the next time they met. In fact, she was too embarrassed by recalling Mai's words to even think about looking. She noticed Mai looking, though. A lot. Upon reflection, she realized she never felt the urge to look at men's asses, arms, or any other part of their body past their faces. She chalked it up to lack of experience compared to Mai, until she saw Serenity checking out Duke. Well, he was wearing leather pants and leaning over, but Serenity seemed to find the whole Duke-leaning-over-in-leather-pants thing far more interesting than she did, and Mai gave a whistle, and all bets seemed off for it being experience. Because there was no way in hell Serenity had any experience at all. Rebecca bet she'd never even watched Porn like she had.

She tried looking at the guys asses, but she still didn't feel anything and it was confusing, and frustrating, and she wasn't sure what was wrong with her. Maybe it was her intelligence level? Mai wasn't stupid, but she wasn't as smart as she was. The Kaiba brothers were, though, and she noticed neither of them were shy about looking at asses. In fact she was pretty sure at one point she caught Mokuba looking at hers, and it felt... well, kinda good. Not thighs-on-fire good, but more like flattering-good. After all, she was pretty sure Mai had to have the better ass. Heck, she even thought Mai had the better ass. Not as good as Tea's, but Mai did have the better legs. Tea danced, and dancers legs were thicker - not that she thought Tea's legs were unflattering - they were good - but Mai's were better. Which Tea made up for by having a better ass and boobs you weren't afraid would poke your eye out. Mai's jiggled too much - she couldn't help but wonder if they hurt by the end of the day.

She didn't stop to think why she knew so much about Tea and Mai's boobs, and so little about their male companion's asses. Did Yugi have a good ass? Mai didn't think so, but she surmised Tea would be the better person to ask. Even though she hadn't seen Tea look at it. Tea did look at it, though, right? Cuz Tea liked Yugi so if even Serenity took time to check out guys bodies than Tea had to too. Still, she never saw Tea look, and that was a relief because it made her feel less weird about the whole thing.

* * *

Mai gave her the lingerie magazines. Because a girl needed good underwear, and Rebecca was growing up and needed to get something sexier to wear anyhow. Apparently they sold clothes too...well what Mai thought of as clothes. The skirts were cute, and she did buy a couple. It happened unexpectedly one evening. The lingerie magazines, and the romance novel were both strewn on her bed, along with text books and computer manuals. Just things to keep her mind busy. Experimenting, feeling the tingle that came from imagining what was in the romance novels, and then when things got boring... there were women on the pages. Scantily clad. Thin waists, sleek legs, barely covered breasts. And she found herself staring. The tingling was back, full force. Flowing hair, flirty looks, swan necks, and cleavage, and breasts and hot... so hot.

She fell back on the bed, her eyes falling closed, but the image still burning in her mind. Her legs moved restlessly, and her lower body was tingling with a want she'd only felt pieces of. Her hands had a mind of their own, cupping her aching groan under the skirt, feeling wetness soaking through the material. And in her mind she saw the scantily clad women and her fingers were digging in, seeking to alleviate the burning desire. Her hips were bucking, and she felt herself rocking and then something gave inside her. Some sort of tension she hadn't known was even there, and she was sagging back, gasping for breath.

* * *

Sexual tension. Masturbation. Sexual Release. The words didn't convey the feelings well enough. It was amazing, and relaxing and freeing. Rebecca hadn't read much into Masturbation. Wasn't it a guy thing? Beating dick, jacking off - all the terms for it were guy-related except the clinical one. Girls weren't supposed to jack off. Because girls weren't supposed to get horny. Girls weren't supposed to be sexual - because that was trashy. Girls were supposed to remain innocent of what sexual pleasure felt like until some guy taught them. That's what everything from the romance books to the pornos seemed to preach. And it was all bullshit.

Now that she was looking, she saw it. Saw how the "nice girls" looked at the guys bodies just as much as the not-nice ones. Now she knew what it meant when they fanned themselves, how they moved their thighs a certain way because they were aroused. Hidden but there. So stupid.

She was too intellectual to feel dirty or bother with oh-no-I'm-not-normal. She'd read enough articles to know it was genetics. People were born like this. It wasn't abnormal to be born with blue eyes, so why the hell would it be abnormal to be born gay? In fact, nothing could be more normal than the traits you were born with.

But how did you even start to find someone? Nobody wore a sign that said, "Hi, I'm a Lesbian, so it's ok to hit on me." She wasn't sure where to look. And yet... damn it, she was looking and it sucked because she was looking at their asses, and they were looking at the guys' asses and that was... lonely.

She thought about asking Mai, but though she was certain the duelist would be plenty supportive, she was pretty sure she wouldn't be very informative. Mai liked guys. Which was fine. Even if she didn't really care about Joey's ass, it was still fun to say in front of the whole group that Mai thought it was the best among any of the current duelists. Joey turned a very interesting shade of red, and Mai actually blushed, and it took months before the others stopped teasing them both about it. Schedules being what they were, the joke tended to stop and start between weeks of not seeing each other. Mai, unsurprisingly, recovered first, apparently deciding that the group being collective in their knowledge of her opinion on Joey's ass meant she could molest it freely. She didn't see them for nearly six months, but when she saw them next, Joey had apparently decided to return the favor. She approved because Mai had the second-best female ass in the group.

Tea's was still the best, but seemed to go rather unmolested. She was tempted to tell Yugi to grow a pair and learn from his friend's example. Sure, she didn't expect Tea to ever have the kind of shameless confidence of Mai and grab a handful of ass in a crowd of people - friends and strangers alike - and that was fine since she had no interest in Yugi's ass. But she was living vicariously, and her ex-crush could have at least grabbed a handful and made her day.

She didn't go out of her way to be secretive. It wasn't like she thought she'd be rejected. The group didn't know the meaning of the word. It just... never came up. They asked if she was seeing someone. No. That was that. Maybe they still thought she was hooked on Yugi. She did hang out with him a lot. It helped that Tea was always there. With her dancer legs, and her mini skirts, and big hazel eyes. More relaxed with her now that she wasn't glomping Yugi or calling him her darling she supposed. They didn't have very many hobbies in common besides Duel Monsters, but Tea was sweet and a good listener. She'd let her go on until any sane person would be bored to tears about her latest project and instead of asking her to stop, would ask her to explain something about it she didn't understand. They spent she didn't know how many all nighters up in the girls' shared hotel room during a tournament talking about everything and nothing and playing some Duel Monsters. She always won, and Tea never minded one bit. In fact, Tea started sending her tickets to every venue she danced at. She found time to attend every one. By the time she realized she'd gone from a childhood crush on one side of the group's destined-couple to a very adult crush on the other it was too late.

She overheard Yugi's long awaited confession, and didn't wait to hear the enthusiastic response. She wasn't even aware of whose shoulder she was sobbing into until Mai asked, "Yugi?"

And she didn't think twice before offering. "Tea..."

"Oh, Becky..."

After that, Mai just let her cry.

* * *

She didn't stop talking to Tea. That would have been obvious, and even a tad unfair. But she was suddenly too tired to spend all night up with her, and she had reasons not to attend every dance venue - she made a few, but they were spaced out and far between. Somewhere along the line they'd all become adults, and suddenly the tournaments when those who weren't participating could all make it were far fewer. Suddenly it wasn't two rooms segregated by gender, but slowly everbranching outwards into personal rooms. Joey and Mai's, then Tea and Yugi's. Duke and Honda didn't seem to make it except when Serenity found time to, and though Serenity was supposed to be her roommate, not a word passed her lips if the young woman was spending far more nights in the two boys' room rather than hers. Being Mai Valentine's lover must have been a liberating experience, because when Joey finally caught on his reaction was surprisingly a tame, "Are you happy?" to his sister. When she admitted she was, he'd kissed her forehead, and turned a deadly glare on his friends. "If even one of you makes her cry, I'll kill both of you. That'll give you incentive to keep each other in line."

While the trio didn't make it out to watch another tournament for a year, there was no more pretense of Serenity sharing her room. As happy as she was for them all, it left Rebecca feeling discouragingly alone. Mai must have noticed, because they spent the evening out, and then in. When she woke up on the couch of the hotel room to the smell of Joey cooking breakfast in the kitchenette, she took time to apologize for stealing his girlfriend for the evening.

"S'okay. I had a best friend to attempt to console."

Which was when she noticed the dark circles under his eyes, and realized he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. She hoped his next match was an afternoon or evening one, or it just might effect his playing. then his words finally sunk in. "Best friend? Console?"

"Yugi. About the break up."

That made her more confused than ever, and she stared at him blankly. "Break up?"

"With Tea."

"But Tea loves Yugi."

"Yah, she does. And Yugi loves her too - and that's why they've lasted this long. But while you can build a relationship on love, you can't build a life without some common ground and compromise."

'I don't understand."

Joey sighed, and she had a feeling this was the same conversation he had been having all night. "where does Yugi live?"

"Japan."

"Where's the gameshop he'll inherit?"

"Japan."

"Where can Tea get the most dancing jobs?"

"...America." Rebecca had a sinking feeling after each answer.

"Yugi's been thinking about retiring from tournaments. He's pretty much won every tournament you can think of. All that prize money has him pretty much set, and he's really not interested in making commercials and selling products. He could move to America and open a new game shop, but really - I think his heart is set on taking over his grandfather's and always has been. Even if he does give it up to move here, it's a bad start to a relationship - sacrificing something that means so much to you. It fuels resentment, and nothing spoils a relationship faster than harboring a secret resentment."

"Which is why he can't ask Tea to come back to Japan. Because then she'd have to give up dancing."

"I think that's why he's stayed on the tournament circuit this long. As long as they were both travelling, they didn't have to think about the future. Of what came next. They could just be happy being together."

Rebecca considered his words before asking tentatively, "Has anyone talked to Tea?"

"No, but I'm sure she'd like a friendly ear."

He didn't have to ask her twice. Tea spent the rest of the tournament as her roommate. They talked about Yugi and her and the general unfairness of life rather than her latest project. But the brunette stayed the whole tournament and cheered on her friends and her ex. Broken heart or no broken heart, Tea would never abandon her friends. Yugi retired, and returned to Japan. Suddenly she was back to attending all of Tea's dance revenues, and Tea was her roommate for every tournament - listening to her go on about her projects as if they weren't boring, and picking up enough to ask questions that kept them up all night.

* * *

Mai and Joey threw a housewarming party when they officially moved in together, and it was probably one of the biggest events for the who's who of Duel Monsters outside of tournaments and game conventions. It was also the first time since Yugi's retirement that the group had all found time to come together. She spotted the girl on Yugi's arm, and half expected Tea to leave. Life wasn't a soap opera though, and Yugi had been Tea's friend before he was her boyfriend. That was how she found herself watching Tea and Yugi's girlfriend chatting like old friends by the pool, telling herself the feeling she felt wasn't jealousy and if it was she was being ridiculous.

It was also how she found herself being handed two drinks by one Yugi Motou, who somehow had two of his own. "Tea didn't bring a date." He pointed out.

The hope those words brought felt both good and painful. Because Rebecca wasn't sure she was ready to take the chance he was suggesting. "Her career keeps her busy."

"In her emails, she talks the most about you."

"What if it falls apart?" She found herself asking him. "You two seemed like destiny, and you fell apart."

"We grew apart, but we have no regrets. I wouldn't take back my confession, and I wouldn't take back our years together. Not for anything."

"But-"

"Which is Tea's favorite drink?"

Rebecca frowned at the drinks she held, then at the ones in his hands. "Neither of these. In fact, she'd prefer either of the ones you're holding more." Yugi's smile told her she'd just been played, even as he set down one of the drinks he carried and took one of hers off her hands. The one she was left holding was her favorite.

"I let Atem go. I let Tea go. I'm at Joey's housewarming party - for the house he just bought with Mai. That's three losses. But I haven't given up yet."

Rebecca wondered if her jaw was really on the ground or if it just felt that way. "But Atem didn't even have his own body, and I thought Joey was your best friend!"

"He is."

"Rebecca, you have to duel if you want even a chance at winning."

Picking up Tea's drink, she'd joined them by the pool.

_Fini_

* * *

So... this fic started because I wanted to write a Yuri, and for some reason my mind latched onto Rebecca and Tea. Except, the relationship itself never actually made it into the story. Instead, we just sort of follow Rebecca's slow acceptance of her own sexuality, mingled with the romantic lives of everyone else. I almost ended it when Yugi and Tea got together, and poor Rebecca ending up heart broken. For some reason when I came back to it I couldn't leave it there. Instead we continue the meandering lives of the group, with a hint of Duke/Serenity/Honda and even hints of Atem/Yugi and one-sided Yugi/Joey at the end. (Muse took me by surprise. I don't even ship Yugi/Joey...)

While the ending is open, in my head Rebecca does get together with Tea.

_**Salmon**_


End file.
